Browsing by Author "Chermack, Thomas, committee member"
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Item Open Access An examination of decision-making during organizational crises: a case study of the 2017 Northern California Firestorm(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Thomas, Cliff, author; Korte, Russell, advisor; Chermack, Thomas, committee member; Folkestad, James, committee member; Williams, Elizabeth, committee memberOrganizations experiencing crises are subject to harm that can involve injuries, fatalities, financial losses, reputational damage, losses of assets, and others. This study examined a phenomenon central to minimizing crisis-related harm: decision-making. More specifically, this study examined the ways in which decision elements interact to influence decision processes and behaviors during crises. The significance of this study stems from a steady increase in the frequency and intensity of organizational crises, and the claim that novel research and insights into the phenomenon can promote harm reduction. Research in this domain has been predominantly grounded in post-positivist perspectives, suggesting that new insights and understandings can be found through alternate perspectives. This inquiry adopted a constructivist and holistic view of crisis decision-making, recognizing that the construction of meaning, or "sensemaking", is an important aspect of decision-making. As such, this study sought to investigate how people make decisions during organizational crises, how and why some factors influence sensemaking and decision-making in the ways they do, how and why some decision factors are ascribed more significance than others, and the ways in which decision consequences influence ongoing decision-making. The conceptual framework guiding this study involved organizational crises, contextual decision factors, sensemaking frameworks, decision-making strategies, and decision consequences. The results of this study are intended to enlighten an area that some researchers and practitioners believe is growing in importance, and to provide insights that will foster improved practitioner capabilities. The study's findings suggest that in some contexts, organizational crisis decision-making can be appropriately described as a complex adaptive system. The findings also yielded insights related to several decision factors: past experiences, time influences, situational control, group member trust, and decision-maker self-perceptions. Among the various decision factors studied, decision-maker self-perceptions were found to be the most influential. Finally, implications for research, theory, and practice are presented.Item Open Access Counteracting student resistance to spaced learning using the Theory Of Planned Behavior(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Mattingly, Victoria Prescott, author; Kraiger, Kurt, advisor; Rhodes, Matthew, committee member; Beier, Margaret, committee member; Chermack, Thomas, committee memberDespite the proven benefits of spaced learning, students are reluctant to use this study technique. I proposed that students do not space their studying because they lack basic competencies needed to successfully engage in this behavior. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, behaviors are the product of one’s intentions, which are derived from attitudes and beliefs. Using this theoretical framework, I designed and evaluated a classroom intervention with the goal of changing debilitating attitudes towards spaced learning. I hypothesized that students exposed to this spaced learning classroom intervention would have stronger intentions to space, higher rates of spaced learning behaviors, and consequently higher exam scores compared to the control group. Intentions to space and the beliefs and attitudes contributing to those intentions were improved by the classroom intervention. Students who spaced their studying also performed better on the exam compared to students who did not space. However, the classroom intervention did not significantly predict whether or not students would space their studying. Implications and future research directions based on the study's findings are also discussed.Item Open Access Does gender matter? A hermeneutic phenomenological study of the shared experience of women physicians in academic pediatrics(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Wukitsch, Michael V., author; Lynham, Susan A., advisor; Bubar, Roe W., committee member; Chermack, Thomas, committee member; Doe, Sue, committee memberAcademic medicine, historically dominated by men, has perpetuated a hierarchical culture that marginalizes women (Boulis & Jacobs, 2008; Morantz-Sanchez, 1985; More et al., 2009; Pololi, 2010). Despite this, the presence of women physicians in academic settings has surged, challenging traditional norms. In pediatric academic medicine, women physicians encounter the need to navigate through this entrenched male-dominated culture. Understanding their experiences is crucial for hospital administrators and medical school leaders. This study investigates the experiences of women physicians in academic pediatrics at a nationally ranked institution. This research sheds light on how women physicians navigate the challenges of a traditionally male-dominated work environment and how their professional lives intersect with personal aspects. This exploration of the layered complexities women physicians face in academic pediatrics provides insight into their lived experiences. Employing hermeneutic phenomenology, this study delves into the lived experiences of women physicians, providing a platform to amplify their voices. Anchored in constructivism, the study's paradigmatic position is elucidated through five governing axioms: defining reality, the knower's relationship with the known, transferability, association linkages, and the role of values in inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 2013, pp. 37-38). Eight essential themes, distilled from participant interviews, capture the essence of their experiences. These themes, categorized into personal and institutional perspectives, are viewed through the lenses of agency and structure, mirroring the yin-yang duality. This approach acknowledges both harmony and potential overlap among themes, presenting the phenomenon as a synthesized whole. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. Further research avenues are proposed, along with insights for refining existing theory. Additionally, considerations for various stakeholders' practices are examined, encompassing recommendations for action. The study concludes with an epilogue, reconsidering the findings based on recent social events.Item Open Access The development and validation of the Mentoring Functions Measure(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Rechlin, Alexandra M., author; Kraiger, Kurt, advisor; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member; Cleary, Anne, committee member; Chermack, Thomas, committee memberThis study developed and provided validation evidence for a new measure of mentoring functions, the Mentoring Functions Measure (MFM). Existing measures of mentoring functions suffer from flaws that the present study aimed to reduce or eliminate. This study had three primary goals: (1) to develop a new measure of mentoring functions, (2) to provide reliability and validity evidence for the measure, and (3) to connect the measure to socioemotional selectivity theory, a theory of aging. In the first phase of the study, 98 items were created based on dimensions that had been used in previous research. These items were reviewed by subject matter experts (SMEs), after which the number of items was reduced to 78. In the second phase, the measure was further refined after being completed by 487 participants in the United States through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk); all participants were currently in an informal mentoring relationship and working at least part-time. Through item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, the MFM was refined and finalized. The MFM consists of 12 items, demonstrates good reliability evidence, and is comprised of three factors: Career functions, Trust & Acceptance functions, and Relationship functions. Construct validity evidence was obtained, with the MFM generally correlating more strongly with the MFQ-9 than with transformational or paternalistic leadership. Criterion-related validity evidence was also established, with MFM subscales predicting affective outcomes (job satisfaction and life satisfaction), health outcomes (burnout), and cognitive outcomes (personal learning). The MFM was expected to demonstrate known-groups validity evidence, using socioemotional selectivity theory; younger protégés were expected to prefer a mentor who exhibits more career functions, and older protégés were expected to prefer a mentor who exhibits more psychosocial functions. However, no significant differences were found in mentor preference based on protégé age. Due to the scale development best practices used to develop the MFM, as well as the reliability and validity evidence established in this study, the MFM can be used by both researchers and practitioners to measure mentoring functions.Item Open Access The lived experience of meaningful work in a stigmatized occupation: a descriptive phenomenological inquiry(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Mercurio, Zachary A., author; Korte, Russell F., advisor; Chalofsky, Neal, committee member; Chermack, Thomas, committee member; Dik, Bryan, committee memberExperiencing work as meaningful has been linked to positive personal and organizational outcomes, such as increased engagement, job satisfaction, motivation, positive work behaviors, performance, and an overall sense of well-being (e.g. Lysova, Allan, Dik, Duffy, & Steger, 2019; Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski, 2010). However, while research seeking to explain the numerous factors that contribute to and result from the experience of meaningful work has proliferated, empirical studies directly investigating the lived experience of meaningful work in diverse occupational contexts are limited. Moreover, the lived experience of meaningless work and its relationship to the experience of meaningful work is not well understood. For workers in stigmatized occupations – jobs relegated by society as physically, socially, or morally undesirable due to the nature of the work – theorists have proposed numerous unique barriers to the experience of meaningfulness, thereby putting these workers at an increased risk for negative outcomes, including disengagement, lower commitment, and low satisfaction (e.g. Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; Blustein, 2011). At the same time, direct inquiry into the lived experience of meaningful work in stigmatized occupations remains sparse. Hence, the purpose of this study was to better understand this experience. This was accomplished using a qualitative approach enacted through a descriptive phenomenological method to uncover what the experience of meaningful work was like for a group of university custodians. Drawing from emerging research (e.g. Bailey & Madden, 2017; Mitra & Buzzanell, 2017), the experience of meaningful work was assumed in this study to be tensional and necessarily linked to the phenomena of meaningless work and meaning-making in work. Consequently, these phenomena were also explored and related to the experience of meaningful work. The descriptive phenomenological analysis resulted in the identification of common elements of the experiences of meaningful work, meaningless work, and meaning-making in work among university custodians. Meaningful work was experienced by each custodian and was characterized by enacting a learned positive approach to work, having and experiencing pride in the work, maintaining meaningfulness, experiencing ongoing external validation of the self and work, enacting kinds of ongoing self-validation, helping others, and developing positive and personal relationships. However, meaningless work was also experienced by each custodian and was characterized by experiencing degradation by others, losing a sense of self at work, experiencing threats to the craft of cleaning, doing repetitive and purposeless tasks, and having kinds of negative experiences with supervisors and management. The experiences of both meaningful work and meaningless work emerged as interwoven meanings in work and were experienced as temporary, volatile, and fluid phenomena. This study adds to the body of meaningful work research and theory by clarifying how the construct of meaningful work is lived through in a stigmatized occupational context, and by exploring the phenomena of meaningless work and meaning-making in work and their relationship to the experience of meaningful work. Moreover, the study offers practitioners an understanding and awareness of the elements that may foster the experience of meaningfulness for workers in stigmatized occupations.Item Open Access Training older adults: the role of strategy use and stereotype threat(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Cavanagh, Thomas M., author; Kraiger, Kurt, advisor; Byrne, Zinta, committee member; Rhodes, Matt, committee member; Chermack, Thomas, committee memberOlder adults are becoming an increasingly important part of the workforce. Due to cognitive and emotional changes associated with aging, this population might require specially designed training programs to optimize training outcomes. Two specific changes associated with aging that need to be addressed are susceptibility to stereotype threat and the use of metacognitive strategies during learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of initiating stereotype threat in older adults, as well as the effect of encouraging older adults to use metacognitive strategies during training, on training outcomes. In a 2X2 between-subject experimental design including no stereotype threat/ stereotype threat and no metacognitive prompt/ metacognitive prompt conditions, 131 older adults between the ages of 55 and 70 years old were assessed on training outcomes. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, stereotype threat had a negative effect on learning outcomes. Contrary to expectations, cognitive prompts also had a negative effect on training outcomes. Implications of the results are that further investigation of optimal training design for older adults is warranted.